A Millennium-Long Scheme, Terrifying on Closer Thought

The Rainbow Bridge shattered!

The massive energy transmission was suddenly cut off. The energy went haywire, triggering a massive explosion on the spot.

Towering waves rose from Asgard's Cosmic Sea, flooding the Rainbow Control Room before falling away and continuing to vanish into the void.

The violent explosion destroyed the Rainbow Control Room. The spherical device collapsed onto the ground and could no longer turn.

Thor and Loki were flung high into the air by the world-destroying energy. Apocalypse had it even worse. He could not fly to begin with, and now he was falling toward the void below the Cosmic Sea, with nothing to push off from.

Moreover, the shockwave from the explosion carried a powerful impact.

The three of them accelerated as they fell toward the Cosmic Sea...

From afar, Apocalypse saw Sif rushing toward the three of them. Unfortunately, the shockwave was still spreading. She had only taken a few steps before the blast sent her staggering back.

Odin, the Allfather, who had been asleep in the palace, heard the explosion. His eyes suddenly snapped open, and he vanished from his sleeping chamber, transforming into a streak of divine light as he flew toward the Rainbow Bridge.

Seeing the three from afar, Odin grabbed two of them, one in each hand, and pulled them back.

The one left behind was Loki!

Loki could not believe it. His father had actually chosen not to save him, instead saving that Earthling?!

His eyes filled with unwillingness, fury, resentment, and despair as he watched Odin. Then he slowly fell into the void and ultimately disappeared.

Asgard's Cosmic Sea never ceased, day or night.

No one knew where its waters came from or where they went.

Apocalypse did not know what lay beneath the Cosmic Sea, but judging from Odin, Thor, Loki, and the others' reactions, it was definitely nothing good. It might even be life-threatening.

In the original plot, Odin had grabbed both Thor and Loki at the same time.

Even in that situation, Loki had not forgotten to trade barbs with the Allfather. In the end, unable to bear it any longer, he chose to let go and fell into the void.

Afterward, somehow, he hooked up with Thanos and returned to Earth to cause trouble again.

But now, he had not chosen to let go. The Allfather had abandoned him.

One could imagine how deep the resentment in his heart would be!

After pulling Apocalypse and Thor back up, the Allfather sighed and flew back to the palace.

Thor remained silent for a long time, staring blankly in the direction where Loki had vanished.

"Father chose to save me. I don't know what will happen to Loki..." Thor said with guilt and pain in his voice.

"Don't worry. Loki's hard to kill. I guarantee he's still alive!"

"Really?"

Apocalypse nodded firmly.

That gave Thor considerable comfort, and his mood improved greatly.

After a while, Thor finally said, "Tang, my good brother, you may have caused a huge disaster just now."

After a brief explanation, Apocalypse finally understood why Thor had smashed harder and harder the more he pushed the Rainbow Divine Needle.

He could only blame himself for having been an Earthling for too long and lacking common cosmic knowledge.

Still, the universe was so vast. The blast might not necessarily hit a planet. Even if it did, it might not be a planet with life. And even if it was, it might not have intelligent life...

Apocalypse could only console himself like that.

The two men stood by the Cosmic Sea. Starlight glittered above, seawater flowed beside them, and the ruins left by the explosion lay nearby. It possessed a strange sort of poetry.

Apocalypse looked toward the starry expanse that the Rainbow Light had just swept across and asked, "Thor, take a look. Are there any fewer stars?"

"Mm... um... probably not?"

Thor squinted and looked for a long while.

"You can't tell at all, can you?"

"I'm not Heimdall. Who keeps count of the stars in the sky all day?"

"Fine."

The two gathered themselves and returned to the palace to rest.

Now that the Rainbow Bridge was broken, there was no hope of returning to Earth anytime soon.

Lying in bed, Apocalypse idly thought over the day's events and compared them with the plot he remembered.

The more he thought, the colder his heart became.

The Allfather was no simple man!

More than a thousand years ago, Odin had found Loki in a temple in Jotunheim. That had been strange enough in itself.

He had stormed into someone else's stronghold, seen an infant of another race, suddenly been overcome with maternal instinct, and brought him home to raise into adulthood. There was obviously something wrong with that picture.

An Allfather who had conquered the Nine Realms, with who knew how many civilians dead because of him—how could he possibly be so softhearted?

Even if he had suddenly found his conscience and brought a child back, he could have handed him over to ordinary people to raise. Why raise him as a prince?

One had to remember that this was the son of Laufey, king of the Frost Giants.

Yet Laufey knew nothing about any of it.

Second, when Thor was first to be crowned, the Frost Giants slipped past Heimdall and infiltrated the palace. Had no one suspected Loki?

It was understandable that ordinary citizens, lacking evidence, would not dare question a prince. But Loki had been raised by Odin and Frigga with their own hands. Frigga might even have taught him things like illusions.

It was impossible for them not to know what their own son was capable of.

Yet there had been no mention of them investigating who had brought the Frost Giants in.

Instead, Thor's exile had seemed excessively severe.

People from Jotunheim came to Asgard and made trouble. People from Asgard went to Jotunheim and made trouble. At most, that made them even. There was no reason to be so timid as to exile their own heir.

And just so happened, the Allfather fainted and entered hibernation at that very moment, allowing Loki to finally do as he pleased.

After that, Loki laid a trap to kill Laufey, king of the Frost Giants, staging a son-kills-father spectacle.

Apocalypse remembered quite a few plots like that.

Then Loki had even planned to wipe out the entire Frost Giant Kingdom.

The queen was nowhere to be seen, and Odin had yet to awaken.

If Thor had not acted in time and decisively shattered the Rainbow Bridge, Loki might really have succeeded.

Once the Rainbow Bridge exploded, Odin—who had not awakened even when ice blades were pressed against him—suddenly woke up.

The first thing he did after waking was not to look for water, but to leap out and save people. Was that a normal reaction for an old man on the verge of fading away?

Clearly, he had seen his biological son in danger and could no longer keep up the act.

In the original plot, Loki had let go.

But with the Allfather's strength, if he truly wanted to pull him up, with barely an arm's length between them, how could he possibly fail?

With Apocalypse's arrival, the Allfather had directly chosen to save Thor and Apocalypse, allowing Loki to fall into the void beneath the Cosmic Sea.

If all these doubts were mere coincidences, then they were coincidences too unbelievable to believe.

It could be said that there had been a ninety-nine percent chance the Frost Giants would vanish. The sole accident was Thor.

If Thor had returned from Earth just a little later, or if he had not been so compassionate and had hesitated for just a moment at the end, Asgard's greatest threat—the Frost Giants—would have vanished from the universe for good.

Even in a world of gods, exterminating an entire race was a tremendous evil.

And all that evil could be placed on Loki's shoulders alone. Then Thor could rule Asgard in the name of a merciful king.

If this had been a scheme, it was utterly terrifying.

No wonder he was the Allfather capable of ruling the Nine Realms!

Odin had no ability to foresee the future. If this scheme had begun a thousand years ago, then the only person who could have assisted him was Queen Frigga.

Today, the moment they met, Queen Frigga had shown Apocalypse every courtesy.

At first, Apocalypse had been rather pleased by her humble and welcoming attitude, believing it to be an advantage of his transmigration.

Thinking about it now, cold sweat rose down his back.

Though the queen might not necessarily harbor ill intent toward him, she might not be without plans for him either.

The next day was the victory banquet.

The Frost Giant king had invaded and died in Asgard. No matter how one looked at it, Asgard was the victor. Holding a banquet to raise morale was entirely necessary.

Thor wore a set of medieval robes and called for Apocalypse. Before the banquet began, they strolled around to admire the scenery.

It was daytime. Apocalypse looked at the sun in the sky and asked, "Is that sun real?"

"It's real."

"Who built Asgard? That's insane."

A continent this enormous could not possibly have formed naturally in the universe. Once the mass of matter reached a certain scale, gravity would collapse it into a sphere.

Thus, the most common naturally occurring celestial bodies in the universe were spherical.

Maintaining a deliberately flat continental structure like this, while using all kinds of unimaginable methods to create the Cosmic Sea, was a feat beyond comprehension.

They had even captured a star and made it orbit Asgard to simulate the cycle of night and day caused by a planet's rotation.

This was the legendary realm of catching stars and seizing the moon!

Thor shrugged. "Some say Father built it during his prime. Still, I don't think he's that powerful."

As he spoke, Sif approached gracefully from afar.